Architecture2

LIGHTARCHITECTURE2 ursRECHER Contents 1. Introduction: Light Follows Rules 5 1.1 Hard, Soft And Diffused Light 5 1.2 Five Parameters To Classify Light 7 1.3 The Inverse Square Law 8 1.4 Direct And Diffused Reflections 9 2. The Set-Ups 2.1 Portrait & Beauty 11 2.2 Full Body & Fashion 18 2.3 Nudes 26 2.4 Products 34 2.5 Mixed Lights 42 2.6 Available Light 49 3. The Lightshapers 3.1 Lightshapers and their Characteristics 62 3.2 The broncolor System 64 1.1 Hard, Soft And Diffused light 1.1.1 Hard light: This book is supposed to be “different”. Unlike most photography books it does not give fixed Looking at the light of a point light source, we will see very clearly defined shadows. On a background rules, such as how this or that has to be illuminated, or which contrast is the right one and which or underground there is either light or shadow, but nothing in between, with no gradations. Even focal length and shutter speed has to be used. the finest details provide a clear shadow. The structure of any object (e.g. textile, skin) is pointed out very clearly. Every photographer still has to decide how he (or she) wants the photograph to look. I just try to give an idea how light functions. With the theoretical background, we should be able to get the A very hard light source is the only one that does not change its characteristics when we vary the result we want. distance (but it does change the power – see “1.3 The inverse square law”). The shadows remain the same: very sharp. Before we start analysing photographs and set-ups, we should take a brief look at light and its rules. This helps to really understand why which lightshaper is used and – just as important – where Hard light may increase the contrast of the object. The areas directly lit may be burnt while the and how it should be placed. shadows remain very dark. The hardness of the light finally has an influence on the color saturation. Small, hard light increases the saturation of the picture while soft, and especially diffused light We have to understand the set-ups and should not try to learn them by heart or copy them like a reduces it. menu from a cookery book! When we understand the rules, we do no longer have to hope for good results and can determine how to modify the light until we get the effect we are looking for. The following lightshapers can be used as hard lights: Any open reflector like P70, P65, P45, P50, PAR reflector, when used over a certain distance; i.e. Our technical abilities in forming light must not limit our creative visions! And in a second step – a few meters or more. Fresnel spots like Pulso Flooter, Pulso Spot 4, Fresnel spot attachment for after having achieved a profound understanding of light – we should start forgetting about all the Picolite. Optical systems like Pulso Spot 4 with 150 mm Optical snoot, Projection attachment for technical aspects of our work and only concentrate on the visual, the emotion, the moment and Picolite and Profil 15/42. Sunlite-set, Litestick or bare bulbs (lamphead with no attachments at all). the model. All the photographs are shown with a minimum of manipulation. I want to give a very honest and realistic impression on what can be expected, when working with the set-ups as explained in Chapter 2. In particular the skins are not retouched and the original texture is still visible. All the names of the lightshapers used in this book refer to the broncolor system that is described in chapter 3. It is the lighting system I use for my daily work, and it is the one with the widest range of lightshapers. It therefore offers the most creative possibilities when working with the most important tool of a photographer: LIGHT. 5 Camera type and Medium A reasonably sized softbox (Pulsoflex C 60 × 100 cm) was chosen to shoot this 35 mm SLR/ black and white negative 2.1 portrait. It was placed very close and right above the head. As it is used at an Resolution / Sensitivity 24 × 36 mm / ISO 100 angle of about 90 degrees to the camera, the light is not flat or too soft, but Focal length shows a dramatically shaped face. 135 mm Shutter speed / f-stop 1/60 sec / f 11 I made sure that the fill-in is not diffused by using a mirror as a “hard reflector”. This tool is used at an “aggressive angle” by touching the model’s upper body, causing the only reflection to be seen in the eyes. In a photograph with a hard main light, you should not use this kind of reflector, as you may get twin- shadows. If the light becomes too harsh, both the main light and the reflector can be moved slightly towards the camera. 1 1 Pulsoflex C 60 × 100 cm on a unilite 4 lamp base 2 Mirror M 3 Black background paper 4 Camera 2 M Model 3 Top view Unilite Pulsoflex C Nano 2 60 × 100 11 portrait & beauty Camera type and Medium A Picolite (1) on a floor stand and equipped with a projecting attachment Large format with digital back illuminates the acrylic table below and behind the frosted bottle. To compensate Resolution / Sensitivity 22 Mpixels / ISO 50 the strong gradation this light creates, we place a concave and silver coated Focal length cardboard (2) behind the object (6). 100 mm Shutter speed / f-stop 1/2 sec / f 22 A Striplite 60 (3) is placed as low as possible and horizontally above the bottle‘s cap. Due to the low position, the light of this Striplite has no undesired effect on the background (read chapter 1.3 The Inverse Square Law). The concave background finally is lit with a Litestick (4). With its distance to the table we define the gradations and the contrast. We use the integrated heat protection to create the dark line between the two highlights. The lightstick is connected to an independent Scoro pack. We program this unit with a short delay, maybe ½ sec, so we expose the background ½ sec later than the main lights - enough time for us to hold a strong soft filter in front of the lens before we fire the Litestick. This softens the contours of the bottle. 5 3 4 6 2 1 Picolite with projecting attachment 2 Concave mirror 3 Striplite 60 4 Litestick 5 Small acrylic background table 1 6 Frosted bottle Side view Picolite Projecting attachment Striplite 60 Litestick Scoro A2S Scoro A4S small lamp for Picolite 35 Camera type and Medium The Balloon on the left (2) is supporting the available daylight coming through Large format / slide 2.5 the skylight (5). The second Balloon is used as a general fill-in. Resolution / Sensitivity 4 × 5 inch / ISO 100 Focal length The spotlight of the Standard reflector with narrow grid (3) breaks the very 90 mm even illumination on the walkway and the bare bulb close to the background Shutter speed / f-stop 1/2 sec / f 11 produces another strong accent. The warm-tone fluorescent lights are slightly burnt and therefore lose their color partially. 1 6 3 7 1 Balloon on a Unilite lamp base 2 Balloon on a Unilite lamp base 3 P70 Standard reflector with narrow 2 grid on a Pulso G lamp base 4 Pulso G lamp base (bare bulb) 5 5 Daylight 6 Fluorescent light (warm-tone) 4 6 7 Camera Top view Standard Pulso G Unilite Honeycomb grids for P70, Balloon Grafit A4 Verso A2 Reflector P70 Set of 3 pcs. 42 mixed lights Profile of Urs Recher 1967 Born in Basel, Switzerland 1983 – 86 Attended high school in Muttenz, Switzerland 1987 – 89 Study of mathematics and physics at the University of Zürich, Switzerland 1989 – 93 Apprenticeship in photography at the School of Arts and the Studio Heusser+Hertig in Basel, Switzerland 1993 Received certificate in photography of the School of Arts, Basel 1994 – 96 Independent photographer in Santiago de Chile, Chile 1996 – 98 Independent photographer and freelance assistant in Switzerland and The Netherlands since 1998 Photographer and consultant at Bron Elektronik AG, Switzerland since 1997 Married to Debby and in 2000 Daughter Anouk was born 65 © Urs Recher photography 2011.

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